The mere mention of the word “psychiatrist” evokes varied and sometimes very emotional reactions on the part of believers. Some believers, especially those who have had a loved one or good friend who benefited from psychiatric treatment, respond very positively. Others who associate the profession with the theories of those like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and with all other anti-Christian ideas recoil in horror that any believer would even consider being treated by one. Of course, there is every position between these two polarized views.
Recognizing Symptoms
As with many things in the Christian life, balance is needed in our thinking, and wisdom that comes ultimately from having the mind of the Lord. We have seen that the human spirit, soul and brain can be deranged by factors beyond our control and that some people have a constitutional tendency to develop mental illness. Abnormal thought patterns and behavior can be studied, categorized, and then recognized in the individual by the particular symptoms that he presents. Such entities as schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, and personality disorders can be recognized and labeled when the appropriate symptoms present themselves. The names applied to such disorders may vary from culture to culture and the cause attributed to different things, but the general pattern of mental illness is very similar in various parts of the world.
In the matter of diagnosis, psychiatry and psychology cannot go beyond the observation and classification of such patterns of behavior, other than perhaps to associate them, in some cases, with factors in the individual’s environment, or to recognize that a particular chemical imbalance in the brain may be a contributing cause. Nevertheless, it is good to be able to put a label on the patient’s problem, to be able to recognize the pattern of that particular disease, and to have some idea of the severity of it. The psychiatrist can be helpful in all this.
Psychotropic Drugs
Also, there have been great strides made during the past fifty years in the research and development of psychotropic drugs. Beginning with the discovery of lithium and chlorpromazine back in the 1950s, the last fifty years have witnessed the development of a myriad of new drugs that have revolutionized the treatment of mental disorders. Prior to the 1950s, most severely disturbed individuals had to be managed in institutions, often with locked doors, barred windows, and sometime physical restraints. (The treatment of the paranoid schizophrenic under the subheading “Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Conditions” is an example of this.) Today most psychiatric admissions are brief, with a rapid return to life in the community. Much of this change is the result of better drugs to treat mental illness, and here the psychiatrist is necessary, for only he knows how to prescribe and supervise the use of these drugs. It is easy to see that such drugs should be prescribed and managed by a medical doctor who can appreciate the indications for them, the proper dosage, the side effects, and their interaction with other drugs. Likewise, someone who is trained to recognize and classify mental disorders can better diagnose a particular problem and initiate treatment.
As a medical doctor, the psychiatrist is trained to probe for various causes of the symptoms he sees and, after putting the information together, to decide what forms of treatment are likely to be helpful in the particular case. He is trained to recognize various forces in the individual’s life and to integrate these with the person’s heredity, personality, background and beliefs. Then he tries to map out a treatment regimen that may include supportive therapy and drugs, as well as helping to give the patient insight as to what he may do to help alleviate his problems.
Administering Drugs
There are many earnest Christians who have been greatly helped by seeing a psychiatrist and who find themselves able to lead relatively normal lives as a result of a carefully monitored treatment program that may include psychotropic medication. Even the visits made to the doctor from time to time can provide support from someone who knows and understands, who is able to discuss and advise, and, if necessary, manipulate medication to achieve the proper effect. Just as, for example, the diabetic needs his insulin or oral medication monitored and adjusted periodically, so the individual with long-term mental illness needs someone who can perform this role. The psychiatrist is necessary in many cases, at least to initiate all this. Sometimes a family doctor can do some of this diagnosing and prescribing, and he can certainly monitor a patient when a treatment regimen has been set up.
Drugs and Morals
Perhaps some will ask, “Why, then, do some believers have such negative feelings about the psychiatrist and feel so strongly against his role in the lives of Christians?” First of all, we must remember what has been said previously, namely, that psychotropic drugs have no moral effect. They make the brain able to function more normally, but they cannot improve anything beyond the physical (the brain). We will deal with this subject more in a subsequent section. Second, while the psychiatrist can certainly give supportive care and psychotherapy, he cannot deal with the spiritual aspect of the illness unless he is himself a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
While medication and man-made psychotherapy may provide some temporary relief, they will not usually provide a permanent solution to the problem, because there are spiritual issues that need to be addressed. Behavior may be explained and perhaps excused as being the manifestation of the disease. (While psychiatrists seldom refer to a certain behavior as sin, they often say, “That’s just behavior,” meaning that it is voluntary action as opposed to a manifestation of the particular mental illness.) Certain behavior may be acknowledged to be harmful, but the reference point will tend to be man. Thus, behavior may be considered harmful to one’s self or others, but often is not viewed as a sin against God. Finally, it must be recognized that the relationship between the patient and the psychiatrist is, of necessity, a very intimate one. The most private information and delicate details of one’s life may have to be aired, and as such, the psychiatrist is in a position to direct the therapy and perhaps mold the patient’s thinking in a way that few others have the opportunity to do. Most psychiatrists, recognizing the importance of a patient’s religious convictions, would not normally give advice contrary to these unless they perceived that such beliefs stood in the way of a resolution of the problem. It is easy to see, however, that such an opinion would be based on the psychiatrist’s own perception of the situation, and if based on man’s wisdom instead of God’s, might well be contrary to Scripture. We must remember that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:77The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7)), and that on every moral and spiritual subject, our thinking is wrong unless founded on the Word of God. May we always remember the statement in Isaiah 8:2020To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isaiah 8:20): “If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” If man is to have a true understanding of himself, he must begin with respect for and the acknowledgment of the Lord who made him and to whom he is responsible.
Thus, we must not rely on man’s wisdom, whether drugs or psychotherapy, to cure spiritual problems. Rather, they must be faced in the Lord’s presence. Even ungodly men have recognized this. Consider the following observations by Dr. Carl Jung, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud:
“I should like to call attention to the following facts. During the past thirty years, people from all the civilized countries of the earth have consulted me. I have treated many hundreds of patients. ... Among all my patients in the second half of life — that is to say, over thirty-five — there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. ...
“It seems to me that, side by side with the decline of religious life, the neuroses grow noticeably more frequent. ...
“The patient is looking for something that will take possession of him and give meaning and form to the confusion of his neurotic mind. Is the doctor equal to the task? To begin with, he will probably hand over his patient to the clergyman or the philosopher, or abandon him to the perplexity which is the special note of our day. ... Human thought cannot conceive any system or final truth that could give the patient what he needs in order to live: that is faith, hope, love, and insight” (emphasis mine).
Carl Jung clearly recognized the religious need of many of his patients, and indeed within the mature age bracket he mentions, all of them evidently suffered from a lack that no ungodly man could supply. It is possible that the psychiatrist may be a worldly man with no understanding of the believer’s new life in Christ, or worse still, he may even harbor atheistic and anti-Christian sentiments, like Sigmund Freud whom we have mentioned. In such cases, the psychiatrist (perhaps with good intentions) may give advice and make suggestions that are contrary to the Word of God, and which, if followed, may do positive harm to the Christian. Humanistic thinking that places self at the center of our thoughts has pervaded our world in the past forty years, and we need to be on guard against it. May we be more familiar with the Word of God, which places Christ at the center of all things!